Friday, December 9th

Mignon Faget

Mignon Faget was raised in a Creole French downtown family in New Orleans, by her father, a doctor from the West Indies and her mother of French descent. Mignon Faget has a sister of 16 years her eldest and a brother of 9 years her eldest.

Mignon Faget launched her first ready-to-wear line in 1969 in a studio in the Riverbend neighborhood of New Orleans. She renovated a barge board cottage and it became the early headquarters housing her studio, jewelry workshop and retail gallery for many years. In 1997, she renovated a neo-classical former bank building to house her company, in addition to having galleries in New Orleans, Metairie, and Baton Rouge. After opening her new facility, she donated her original location on Dublin Street to the Preservation Resource Center.

Her jewelry is often inspired by her local environment, such as New Orleans architecture and culture or based on forms in nature. Faget describes her work as a “crossover between a jeweled accessory and a piece of jewelry”. Faget designs by collections and has created works entitled Sea, Romanesque Return, Zea, Animal Crackers, Armament, Schema, among others. Citing a dictionary, Faget herself referred to her work as “biomorphic,” meaning “related to, derived from, or incorporating the forms of living beings, used especially of primitive and abstract art.” However, she has also made work drawing inspiration from man-made elements such as architecture and place-based culture.